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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 1: Today's tip is that there are a lot of known unknowns.

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Speaker 1: Many of the normal things that go wrong can be

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Speaker 1: dealt with if you plan ahead. Over the past few weeks,

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Speaker 1: I have been talking about how to build a resilient schedule.

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Speaker 1: Anyone can build a perfect schedule, but true time management

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Speaker 1: masters know how to deal with the unexpected. Part of

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Speaker 1: this is realizing that some things aren't really unexpected at all.

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Speaker 1: Several decades ago, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made the

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Speaker 1: observation that in war things fall into several categories. There

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Speaker 1: are the known knowns, the things we know we know.

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Speaker 1: There are also known unknowns. He said, that is to say,

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Speaker 1: we know there are some things we do not know.

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Speaker 1: He also noted that there are unknown unknowns. He said,

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Speaker 1: the ones we don't know, we don't know. He was

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Speaker 1: making a point about the last category. But I've always

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Speaker 1: thought that the middle category, the known unknowns, is most

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Speaker 1: interesting from a time management perspective. In life, a lot

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Speaker 1: of excuses come back to the idea that something unexpected

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Speaker 1: came up. People are late to things that occur at

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Speaker 1: six pm across town, and then note that there was traffic.

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Speaker 1: A project gets derailed over the winter because of staff

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Speaker 1: absences due to illnesses, or a deadline is missed because

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Speaker 1: a snowstorm keeps everyone from the office, But these events

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Speaker 1: aren't actually unexpected at all. There is almost always traffic

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Speaker 1: during rush hour. People get sick over the winter. If

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Speaker 1: you live in a place where it rains and snows,

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Speaker 1: you will need to deal with rain and snow. Traffic, illnesses,

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Speaker 1: and weather are all known unknowns. You may not know

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Speaker 1: exactly when they will hit. Some Fridays at six pm

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Speaker 1: are better than others, and norovirus might hit your community

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Speaker 1: in January instead of December, but they will probably happen

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Speaker 1: at some point. They are known unknowns. Of course, there

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Speaker 1: are unknown unknowns too. Most run of the mill plans

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Speaker 1: cannot reasonably be expected to include, say, a global pandemic

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Speaker 1: that shuts down things for a year. But in life,

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Speaker 1: you can and should try to prepare for the known unknowns,

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Speaker 1: which I would put as those in the tenth to

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Speaker 1: nine percentile of likelihood. So for anything that matters, take

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Speaker 1: some time to think through what might go wrong, what

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Speaker 1: might prevent you from getting to the office to deliver

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Speaker 1: a major presentation to the CEO on time. For various people,

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Speaker 1: the likely culprits might be a childcare snaphew, a transportation issue,

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Speaker 1: a weather problem depending on the location and time of year,

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Speaker 1: and so forth. Think about how you might deal with

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Speaker 1: these If your normal childcare is suddenly not available, do

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Speaker 1: you have a backup plan? Could your spouse or another

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Speaker 1: relative cover in a pinch? You might confirm that your

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Speaker 1: spouse hasn't scheduled anything unmissable on the big day, just

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Speaker 1: in case. On the car front, you might think through

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Speaker 1: how you'd take Uber if you had a problem, or

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Speaker 1: think through alternate routes in case there was an access

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Speaker 1: it on the highway. As for whether you might have

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Speaker 1: a backup plan to present virtually if the office would

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Speaker 1: be shut down but the CEO was still available. One

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Speaker 1: silver lining of the pandemic is that it has forced

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Speaker 1: people to think through different work arrangements. It turns out

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Speaker 1: that for much work, being in the office is a

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Speaker 1: separate concept from getting work done. Our workflows are now

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Speaker 1: a lot more resilient. In any case, when you think

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Speaker 1: about the known unknowns, you can make plans to deal

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Speaker 1: with them. Hopefully you won't have to deal with them,

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Speaker 1: but knowing that you can will give you a lot

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Speaker 1: more confidence in your schedule. You'll feel confident agreeing to

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Speaker 1: a client's deadline because you've built in space to absorb

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Speaker 1: those staff sick days that are bound to happen. That's

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Speaker 1: not an unknown unknown, it's pretty likely to occur at

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Speaker 1: some point. If not amazing, you'll be done early, but

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Speaker 1: probably you'll be glad to have the space. That's what

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Speaker 1: time management masters no. In the meantime, this is Laura.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 1: our time. Hey everybody, I'd love to hear from you.

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Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast

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Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email

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Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com. That

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Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before

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Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I Heart Radio. For more

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Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,

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